By BRAD WONG, P-I REPORTER

Updated 10:00 pm, Sunday, November 4, 2007

A West Seattle bicyclist was shot in the lung with a BB on Thursday as he pedaled home.

During a Saturday memorial, dozens of friends of Bryce Lewis cycled past the Eastlake intersection where he died after a truck hit him in September.

And riders still are talking about a late-October near miss in Fremont, when a sport utility vehicle driver tried to hit or intimidate a bicyclist. The driver denies that accusation and told police the rider was in the middle of the street.

Tensions are flaring between bicyclists and motorists here, and the timing for many riders is just right.

An expected City Council vote Monday on a bicycle master plan would add millions of dollars in improvements, including 19 miles of cycling trails and a 230-mile system of marked routes for riders.

"I think it will cut down on accidents," said Councilwoman Jan Drago, the plan sponsor. "When we have more bike lanes and trails, it will help."

Accidents and violence against riders have been gaining attention recently as Seattle's booming population looks for alternative transportation.

Each day, about 6,000 residents pedal to work, the city reports. On an average Saturday, 2,200 riders enjoy the Burke-Gilman Trail. From 2002 to 2005, people reported 1,088 bicycle crashes to Seattle police.

"I think there is more manifestation of that tension," Council President Nick Licata said. "I think it's because of more bikes on the roads and the city encouraging more bikes."

He believes more education for motorists about city efforts to promote bicycling will help.

In the long-distance bicycling community, Peter McKay's friends hope that no rider will experience what he did Thursday, as he commuted home to West Seattle.

The evening was chilly, as the 46-year-old rode his blue road bicycle on Delridge Way Southwest.

Near Southwest Barton Street, a dark-colored sedan whizzed by him on his left and he heard bangs, possibly two. He was about 3 feet from the car.

Pain quickly filled his chest, especially with each breath he took. He hunched over his handlebars to cope. But he didn't see blood, so, he kept riding.

"I didn't think of calling the police or dialing 911," he said Saturday. "I just kept riding."

At home, as he was preparing to wash up, he noticed two bumps on his body and a bloodstain.

BB pellets entered his jersey, leaving holes about the diameter of a pen tip.

Seattle fire medics rushed to his house and searched his body for exit wounds. They did not find any and took him to Harborview Medical Center, where he spent the night.

Doctors learned from an X-ray and a scan that one BB penetrated his left lung, releasing air into his chest cavity, and the second just missed his aorta and spinal cord.

McKay, who was calm in recounting the shooting, is not worried that they will cause him problems in the future.

But one BB sits in his left lung. The other rests on top of his diaphragm.

"My spirits are great," he said Saturday. "The lung feels pretty good. But I can feel some nuisance of it."

He joked that he shouldn't have been wearing a yellow bicycling jersey because it made him an easy target. One friend suggested that he start wearing bulletproof clothing.

"I couldn't believe it," said Mark Thomas, a friend of the victim. "It feels like it's an assault on cyclists everywhere."

In the past, a motorist has hurled a bag of fast food at McKay. Other motorists, he added, have thrown bottles at his bicycling friends. A drunken driver even hit one of his riding friends.

The shooting, though, is a first. McKay is not optimistic police will find the culprit. All he remembers is the taillights.

"There's little evidence. There's not much to go on," he said.

A police spokesman Sunday declined to comment on the case.

In a blog post, where McKay first described the shooting, he wrote about feeling the pain filling his chest and the thought of being shot entering his mind: "I am angry at them. But, they are long gone."